Beginning Visual C++ 6 (Paperback)

by Ivor Horton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Windows programming is not difficult," observes well-respected author Ivor Horton in his book Beginning Visual C++ 6. "In fact, Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 makes it remarkably easy." Horton's treatment of Visual C++ continues the expert author's thorough and patient presentation of the best of today's object-oriented computer languages. (Besides C++, the author has written the excellent Beginning Java for Java developers). This massive, yet quite comprehensible, tutorial covers all the essential features of C++ used with Microsoft Visual C++ 6. Horton's book is the ideal choice for programmers who don't want to skimp on their general knowledge of C++. The author covers all the bases here in a title that will certainly compare favorably with any other Visual C++ tutorial on the market today. --Richard Dragan

Product Description
Visual C++ 6 is the latest incarnation of Microsoft's premier development product for C++ developers. It contains the latest version of the MFC&T (Microsoft Foundation Classes & Templates) which has virtually become the Industry-wide library used to write Windows programs. Visual C++ 6 also contains the Active Template Library 3.0 ( ATL ) , which is a framework and collection of Wizards for writing ActiveX & COM controls. This book is a tutorial in use of all the major functions of Visual C++ 6.Proven teaching methods guarantee success to novice C++ programmers with a complete tutorial from 'vanilla' C++ , through to OO programming, Windows and using MFC&T. Each concept is supported by graduated code examples and the reader will be coherent in writing a real Windows program and controls by the end of the book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1181 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 186100088X
• ISBN-13: 978-1861000880
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #722,800 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #80 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > C > Tutorials

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

217 of 219 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book for programmers learning C++, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

If you read the remaining reviews of this book, you will probably be surprised and confused by the extreme opinions expressed. To help you decide whether this book is worth your time and money, I offer these observations:

C++ is a very complex programming language written BY advanced programmers FOR advanced programmers. NO AUTHOR CAN MAKE C++ PROGRAMMING EASY. However, it is my opinion that Mr. Horton does an excellent job presenting a well-rounded overview of Visual C++ programming in this book.

Be warned. This book is NOT for you if:

-You have never programmed before

-You have written a few Visual Basic programs that have a couple dozen lines of code in them

-You expect this book to tell you everything that there is to know about Visual C++, MFC, ATL, Windows, COM, DLLs, memory management, enterprise development, etc., etc. (No single book can do all these things.)

However, this book may be a good choice for you if:

-You have written some fairly advanced programs in languages like Visual Basic, and love the challenge of programming

-You have the patience to read a 1200 page book slowly and carefully, and are willing to write sample programs to reinforce your learning

-You need a systematic, thoughtful overview of Visual C++ so you can start down the very long path to proficiency

I use this book when teaching my college-level C++ programming classes, and my students do struggle. But they struggle with the complexities of C++ and MFC, not with the book. I find no fault in the book itself. Please try to distinguish those reviewers who criticize the language from those who criticize the book.

I hope you find my comments useful.

167 of 168 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real World Programming, February 9, 2000

By	Steve Plowman (Eau Claire, wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am an engineer who has decided to learn Visual C++ and has never programmed before. The first half of the book covers console applications (DOS programs). The second half covers many topics in MFC and one in ATL. When Ivor explains about console applications, it is easy reading in which you can cover more pages per hour and have a good understanding on the topics. The second half of the book is a much more difficult topic to learn and I needed to slow down a bit to understand it. I understood each chapter perfectly well only due to the fact that I did not go on to the next chapter until I knew the previous chapter by heart. It is like learning from a Math textbook from high school. The book starts out easy but then later becomes very complicated so you need to know all of the content in previous chapters and not impatiently speed through the book. It took me three months for the first half and nine months for the second half. Ivor Horton does an excellent job explaining very difficult material in a real world setting. This is what makes it different from a math textbook. A typical math textbook only covers math and not how to apply mathematics in a real world application. Ivor Horton concentrates on this book being applicable to the real world. He does assume the reader is familiar with mathematics to the level of trigonometry. If you are not familiar with this, some examples in the book may be confusing. Other people who reviewed this book and gave it only one star seemed to me that they wanted a quick and dirty session of how to program in Visual C++ from scratch. If they want quick programming, then they should go read a book on Visual BASIC scripting, not Visual C++.

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Intro to C++, but..., October 26, 1999

By	Matt Bridges ([e-mail]) (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews

As a Windows Programming MCT, I constantly read "Beginner" books to recommend to my students to supplement or provide backgrounders to the Microsoft Official Curriculum.

The book does a pretty good job until you get to Windows programming. Actually I think it's one of the better books to learn the fundamentals of C++ programming.

However, the treatment of structures leaves a little to be desired, with common structures that appear throughout the entire Windows API being glossed over in Chapter 7.

Contrary to several other reviews, the intro to MFC is not that bad, and provides a good background to move on to other texts more devoted to the subject.

ATL should be removed from the text completely. This subject requires a more detailed explanation of COM which is simply not appropriate for a beginers text. My recomendation would be to expand the section on structures in a Windows context.

Also, version 6 of Visual Studio introduced OLE-DB as a solution for Universal Data Access, yet there is no mention of it here. Instead the author has applied a cut and paste from the version 5 of the book to give us ODBC. It would've been more appropriate to mention something about OLE-DB templates, and focus on ADO.

Overall however, this is a book I would recommend for beginners, to continue with Programming Windows with MFC, 2nd Ed by Jeff Proise.